Gorgeous New Concept Art Photos from Disney's Rapunzel

In Disney's new telling of the classic fairy tale, Rapunzel, audiences will be transported to a stunning CG fantasy world complete with the iconic tower, an evil witch, a gallant her and, of course, the mysterious girl with the long golden tresses. Expect adventure, heart, humor, and hair… lots of hair, when Rapunzel unleashes her locks in theaters for the 2010 holiday. A small batch of new concept art photos (that are not representative of the final CGI look of the film) have popped up over on the official Walt Disney Animation Studios website (via SlashFilm) recently. We've included all of the photos below for your viewing pleasure.

Rapunzel has been in development for a long time at Disney. More than a year ago we featured some other early concept art and first look at the title character, being voiced by Broadway actress Kristin Chenoweth. The animated film is being co-directed by story artist Nathan Greno and Bolt director Byron Howard. The voice cast is also rumored to include David Schwimmer, Matthew Gray Gubler, Dan Fogler, and Peter Sallis. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but originally Rapunzel was supposed to look and feel like a traditional hand-drawn animated Disney film, but in full 3D. We'll keep you updated on all the latest with Rapunzel.

One issue I have with this, is that it is not an originial idea from Disney. Rapunzel is a classic children's story and yet it seems Disney wants to try and market it as it's own. Not sold, but the pictures do look quite amazing.

Garrett

Neither were a bunch of stories they told. Stories like Cinderella were way more gruesome and dark before disney had anything to do with them.

Jeffrey

CAST LISTED IS INCORRECT; this is the old cast from previous versions of this animated film from YEARS ago. The film has not been officially cast yet, and will not be using any of those voices.

Brian Barajas

hahahah, seriously #1, welcome to 90% of Disney movies, and welcome to earth too......
on the other hand, there is a slight feel of treasure planet/atlantis style here, of which im not a big fan of.

Tra la la la la di da

Movieraider needs to raid a library and learn to read. I'm surprised they haven't done this yet, I thought they did. Then again they all stat to blend together lol
Seriously, adding another Disney Princess and it not be hand drawn, I feel there is something wrong here. Whatever, hopefully the premise (like every other Disney movie) will be better than The Frog thing coming out this year.

JL

i would much rather have seen this as a hand drawn animated feature. A classic story turned into a Disney version would better suit this story much like Cinderella, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, Tarzan, and the Little Mermaid for example.
The Princess and the Frog I think is a good stepping stone to get back into the hand drawn aspect, but I don't think it'll be as great as the previous others.

#7 The Black Cauldron was based on two books in Lloyd Alexander's phenomenal children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain. The first is The Book of Three and the second is The Black Cauldron. There are three other books in the series and I highly recommend them to people who want sort of a combination Narnia and Lord of the Rings. The books are far better than the movie, which was pretty laughably bad.
As to original Disney movies, I think The Lion King might have been the very first one (though it's definitely influenced by Hamlet), unless you count Fantasia or The Three Caballeros. Since then, Dinosaur, The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, and Home on the Range have all been original, I believe. But since most of these movies sucked, I think it might be nice to get back to Disney's traditional fairy tale roots. I just hope they can take some notes from Pixar and pull it off well.

Movieraider321

okay yeah I get it, Disney is very unoriginal, but I grew up with those timeless classics, and to start up again now, just feels odd, ESPECIALLY with Rapunzel, I mean come on disney find a better fucking story to work with.

Tim

The Black Cauldron was not an original Disney concept. It is part of the Chronicles of Prydain, written by Lloyd Alexander.

I like the lantern picture, not very Rapunzel-ish
Here's the real version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN7jhXlYEc8
But yeah Disney lost it's 'magic' a long time ago, nothing they make is interesting, you really got to look elsewhere.

DukePhoenix

#8 The Lion King is a total and near illegal rip off of the brilliant Japanese series Kimba The White Lion.

Mark

#3... Yeah, the casting may be out of date, but the film has difinitely been cast. The film's coming out 2010 with at least 18 months of animation work. A vast majority of the voicework would've been recorded about 6-12 months ago. We just need to wait for an official announcement of the cast.
Still, I hope Peter Sallis is still in it. As for Kristin Chenoweth... Well, I always like it when broadway stars do voice work for Disney films, they suit them better.
Love the concept work. I hope Glen Keane will still be a big part of this film, even if he's not directing.

Scott

LMAO @ #1 Would you rather have 21st Century Fox try to make Rapunzel..haha

Chris

hopefully this is real 3d and not a letter and a number added at the end to dupe people into paying more and not getting what they payed for. i'm looking at you UP in "3d". loved the movie but i felt lied to when they said it was in 3d

inspiredefined

I think this would've been a great addition to Disney's library of "new age" hand-drawn animated features, after "The Princess and the Frog."
Still waiting to see a trailer before I pass judgment...

BVDR

Wow, people use wikipedia more than i thought....

zeldaprimed

hmmmm.....anyways....
Gorgeous Pics!

snickers

@12 - That is a well-known. The influence is obvious, but whether it's an outright rip-off is questionable.

Geenyus

Many of these comments miss the mark. Disney Animation's culture has primarily been one of story telling- not story writing. Their forte is bringing classics to 'life'. Remember Winnie the Pooh? Scene segues quite literally take you into the books by reading along with passages on screen. At the end of the day, Disney presents stories from classic literature and puts 'faces' on the characters therein. Without these movies, would you know names such as JM Barrie, PL Travers, AA Milne, or Carlo Collodi?

Wow, nice. This looks like classic animation style, although I know it's CG.

Luke

I really wish this wasn't going to be CG.

snickers

@22 - It would be good if they used the combination of hand-drawn art and CG that worked so well in The Lion King, and works so well in Japanese animation today.

Natalie

I'm so sick of 3d movies from disney. I mean don't get me wrong its cool with some of the movies they made but if they're going to make a classic fairytale story then please let it be DRAWN. They are going overboard with the 3d thing. I get it, its cool that you guys can do movies like this now but i mean you can still go back to the classics and the original way of making fairytale movies. I miss the disney classics. Stop killing the movies!!!

These are really beautiful and lyrical images. I am really looking forward to this movie and the Princess and the Frog!

kailen

i luv disney movies there so ummmm magical it's good to imagine living in such a wonderfull world. I personaly always dream of my self being tinker bell. In a way me and tinker bell are much alike in our own special ways for example we are both very prettie. i know you might think im a stuck up snoty girl but i think its good to think such great of your self
xoxo, kailen

jp

i wish it'd be 2d, like princess and the frog, the artwork^ looks amazing